Low, spreading shrub to c. 50 cm high, often more or less prostrate; leaves and branchlets closely indumented with stalked stellate hairs, the stalks of which are mostly under 0.3 mm long and the stellae spreading to c. 0.6 mm diam. Leaves narrowly to broadly elliptic or obovate, 4.5–8(–10) mm lon, 1.7–3(–4) mm wide, upper sruface inally glabrous and shining, smooth or with small scattered tubercles. Petals mostly 5–6 mm long; stigma 1.5–2 mm diam. when fully expanded. Flowers Nov.–Jan.
HSF, HNF, VAlp. A fairly common component of treeless alpine heaths and grasslands.
